I have a 22-23 week old pullet, call her "#6," who has never been "right." At the outset she was the smallest of the six RSLs we bought at the same time, with wings that were underdeveloped and smaller than the other five. She's also a lighter, almost duller color and her comb took several weeks longer than the others to appear (it was a grey-ish bumpy ridge up until 2-3 weeks ago, whereas the others all had full combs by then). Body size she's right on track with the others. She is not laying that I can tell (again, the others started at 16-18 weeks) despite doing the squat stomp fairly regularly, and she is definitely bottom bird.
#6 has always been kind of a loner and a couple of weeks ago I noticed she was receiving a lot more abuse from one other bird—being pecked away from food, not allowed to share treats, and the bully hen would rush at the bottom from across the run just to whap her. Up until then they'd all kind of cohabitated pretty well with no real aggression. A week or so ago #6 also stopped roosting at night and was bedding down in the nest boxes. I've been moving her after dark in an attempt to re-train her and it seemed to be working.
On Tuesday afternoon I noticed #6 wedged behind the waterer, pressed up against the run screen, in a far corner. Standing still and drowsy. I figured the bully was giving her a hard time so I let them out into the yard to separate them and give her some room, to see what she did. She roamed and scratched and did her thing. On Wednesday I was away all day and didn't have a chance to spend time with my flock to check them out—which I do at least a couple of times per day. By yesterday, she was pretty much rooted in one spot for hours, standing but struggling to stay awake, tail drooping. I'm kicking myself that I may have been caught it a day earlier.
She does not appear to be egg bound, and she does not have a hard or impacted crop that I can tell (it's flat). She's not eating and has only had two very (very) foul, runny poops since about 3:00 yesterday afternoon. I put her in a box with bedding and water to leave her be. After not being at all interested in water for some time, late yesterday she started drinking and kept at it continuously for about three hours, which was really odd. This morning her breathing is very raspy and she's been drinking a little but not a lot, and I notice that a bit of fluid is dripping back out of her beak. She's spending more time laying down and has even been sleeping slumped over the water dish.
Given that she's so compromised, is it worth it to try antibiotics or a wormer, or is she basically beyond help at this point, since it's likely been three days of her being in bad shape? Sorry for the wall of text but I wanted to include the other details because she's not really been a prime specimen from the beginning, and maybe this is just an unfortunate culmination of defects that have been present all along? Our birds get good care and have a cushy life, and we really enjoy having them around, but they're not pets. So if it's more humane to make a hard decision, I guess I'm willing to do that, because I don't want her to suffer any more.
#6 has always been kind of a loner and a couple of weeks ago I noticed she was receiving a lot more abuse from one other bird—being pecked away from food, not allowed to share treats, and the bully hen would rush at the bottom from across the run just to whap her. Up until then they'd all kind of cohabitated pretty well with no real aggression. A week or so ago #6 also stopped roosting at night and was bedding down in the nest boxes. I've been moving her after dark in an attempt to re-train her and it seemed to be working.
On Tuesday afternoon I noticed #6 wedged behind the waterer, pressed up against the run screen, in a far corner. Standing still and drowsy. I figured the bully was giving her a hard time so I let them out into the yard to separate them and give her some room, to see what she did. She roamed and scratched and did her thing. On Wednesday I was away all day and didn't have a chance to spend time with my flock to check them out—which I do at least a couple of times per day. By yesterday, she was pretty much rooted in one spot for hours, standing but struggling to stay awake, tail drooping. I'm kicking myself that I may have been caught it a day earlier.
She does not appear to be egg bound, and she does not have a hard or impacted crop that I can tell (it's flat). She's not eating and has only had two very (very) foul, runny poops since about 3:00 yesterday afternoon. I put her in a box with bedding and water to leave her be. After not being at all interested in water for some time, late yesterday she started drinking and kept at it continuously for about three hours, which was really odd. This morning her breathing is very raspy and she's been drinking a little but not a lot, and I notice that a bit of fluid is dripping back out of her beak. She's spending more time laying down and has even been sleeping slumped over the water dish.
Given that she's so compromised, is it worth it to try antibiotics or a wormer, or is she basically beyond help at this point, since it's likely been three days of her being in bad shape? Sorry for the wall of text but I wanted to include the other details because she's not really been a prime specimen from the beginning, and maybe this is just an unfortunate culmination of defects that have been present all along? Our birds get good care and have a cushy life, and we really enjoy having them around, but they're not pets. So if it's more humane to make a hard decision, I guess I'm willing to do that, because I don't want her to suffer any more.
